Get a life with the dreamer's dream

“Truffle risotto?” Nick questioned as he looked over the menu. “That sounds weird. Why would someone make a chocolate risotto? That can’t be fancy dining.”

Dawn stared at Nick in shock. He wasn’t serious… was he?

She shook her head slowly. “Nick… are you mental?” She covered her mouth and smiled. “That’s not the kind of truffle we’re talking about here. It’s not chocolate bonbons. A truffle is a kind of tuber. A fungus, you know?”

Nick made a face. “Okay, I don’t know about that, never mind then. That just sounds gross, no thank you.”

Dawn blinked and stared at him. Then she laughed and shook her head. “Nick! You get mushrooms on your pizza, remember? That’s a tuber as well!”

Nick mouth fell open.

“I-I don’t want to hear that!” He groaned. He knew that mushrooms were a type of fungus, but for the sake of one of his favorite foods, he always pretended it was a vegetable or something. But Dawn wasn’t about to let him get away with that, it seemed.

Dawn just giggled and shook her head. “Anyway, I’m not much one for risotto anyway. I’m definitely getting those seared scallops for an appetizer, though, they sound delicious.”

“Mmm, yeah, that does sound nice. No sorbet?” Nick asked, flipping through the menu. “That’s quite a shame, don’t you think?”

Dawn gave him an exasperated look and rolled her eyes. “Come on.”

Nick grinned at her. “I’m just teasing. I think for my appetizer, though, I’m going to get the stuffed mushrooms. …Sorry! Stuffed tubers.”

Dawn rolled her eyes again. “Whatever, weirdo.”

“Hey, at least you know all this stuff,” Nick said. “Is it because of all the traveling you do?”

Dawn shook her head. “No, I just know things. I’m smart, remember? But I’m surprised you don’t! After all, your stepmother is a member of high society, right? I’d have thought you’d eat at places like this all the time.”

Nick shook his head. “No, I mean… Amelia had a lot of money, but she was always a frugal person. Even for stuff like birthdays we never went to Michelin star restaurants or anything like that, you know? We’d go to, like, ‘Steakhouse Grill’ or whatever. Local restaurants.”

Dawn was surprised. “Well, now I’m imagining your stepmother biting into some fat-and-grease-drenched burger,” she said, laughing. “But you’re right… there weren’t exactly fancy restaurants back in our hometown, huh?”

She had a wistful tone in her voice and sighed, and shook her head. “A pity though. If there was, maybe we could have gone to one, back in the day. You know, like a date.”

Nick could sympathize with the emotion behind that. The two of them, enjoying themselves and getting along on a date to a fancy restaurant. At the same time, though, as nice as it would be to change the past…

“We didn’t have any money back then,” he pointed out.

“Ah. Fair enough. We were a couple of broke high-schoolers,” Dawn said with a laugh. She ran her fingers over the fancy silverware. “Not anymore, though.”

“I’m still broke.”

“You’re making enough off your book sales, right?” Dawn questioned.

Nick shook his head. “Not as much anymore, Ms. Veterinarian,” he replied. “Certainly not as much as you’ve probably got saved up.”

“Fair,” Dawn admitted with a laugh. “But then, you ARE dating a heiress. Kind of. And you could probably ask your stepmom, right?”

Nick raised his eyebrow. “Are you serious right now?” He asked. “I want you to take a second right now, and picture yourself asking Amelia for money.”

Dawn blinked and stared at him.

“…Okay yes, you’re right,” she said, shaking her head. “I don’t think I could do that.”

Nick nodded. “Yep. It’s a bit of a… yeah. Let’s just say that she’s the kind of person who’ll give you money if you ask for it, but will stare at you with that judgmental look on her face the whole time like ‘Do you really know what you’re doing with this? I know I raised you better than to thoughtlessly waste money on something extravagant and useless.’”

Dawn nodded. “Yeah, that sounds like her, alright.”

“She’s the kind of woman who would require a business loan proposal if you wanted an advance on your allowance,” Nick said, looking back fondly on everything he’d gone through with her. “Kind of hard to surprise her on her birthday or for Christmas, I’m sure you could imagine.”

Dawn burst out laughing. “Oh my gosh! That sounds just awful!” She shook her head, her tail flicking behind her. “But that’s nothing compared to my mom.”

“Oh? What does she require for a loan, a blood sacrifice?”

Dawn reached across the table and smacked him on the arm. “No! It’s a whole different thing,” she sniffed, shaking her head. Sighing, she pinched the bridge of her nose and pushed up her glasses. “Back when I was still working… before I came here, my mom, she was always trying to… set me up. With guys.”

“Oh?” Nick bristled, not sure he liked the direction this conversation was going. “So she was setting you up on dates, huh?”

“Oooh, jealous, are we?” Dawn giggled, flashing him a sly smile. “Don’t worry, Nick, they were all bores and dullards. I didn’t feel any spark from any of them. I mainly just went to humor my mom, since she wouldn’t stop bothering me about grandchildren…”

Dawn let out a long sigh, but stopped when she saw Nick bristle.

“…You good?”

“O-oh, yeah, yeah,” he said, shaking his head. In spite of his smile, it was clear from his body language that something had shaken him. “Just, well, what you said before, about grandchildren…”

Dawn blinked. Then her mouth dropped open and she sat up straight. “Wait, what are you talking about? You mean…”

“Just, well… I wasn’t going to bring it up, but in the sauna earlier, when you and I- When we…”

Nick’s face turned red as he remembered the flashes of passion that had occurred between the two of them in the steam. A wild, hot dalliance that still felt as real to him as the cold sweat trickling down the back of his neck.

“…I… I know we said that we were going to be safe, but…” Nick also remembered the conversations he’d had with Dawn and Kim about practicing safe sex to avoid any unwanted pregnancies. You know, the kind of sex that they had definitely not had in the sauna. He blushed more. “When we were together, you and I… I kind of just…”

Dawn turned bright red and buried her face in the menu. “So about those foie gras, you know that’s duck liver, right? I think not. I would much prefer the Chicken Florentine, don’t you think?”

“Come on, Dawn, we can’t just ignore this,” Nick said. “You were the one who told me that we had to be serious about this stuff.”

With a sigh, Dawn set down the menu and looked up at him, adjusting her glasses. Her cheeks were red but her face was resolute.

“Nick, you don’t need to panic,” she said gently. “It’s fine. I’m safe.”

A sigh of relief escaped Nick’s lips. “Safe? You mean…”

She nodded and rubbed her belly, right over her womb. “It’s my safe time of the month,” she assured him. “Well, as safe as it can be, anyway.”

Nick looked at her in alarm. “What!?”

Dawn blinked. “Nick… how little do you know about female anatomy?” She resisted the urge to grin.

“I’m sure I know a lot less than you do, considering I never went to medical school, so why don’t you just tell me what you’re getting at?” Nick tried to sound amused by the conversation, but he couldn’t conceal the worry in his voice.

Dawn wasn’t fazed though. She shrugged. “Hey, look, it’s not as bad as you’re thinking. It’s just… well, there’s never a time when you have sex that is 100% safe from pregnancy. Conception can occur from any act of unprotected sex, even if you’re as far away from your ovulation as possible. It’s just that there are times when it’s safer to have sex than others.”

“So what you’re saying is that right now, you could be…” Nick looked at Dawn and bit his lip, his hands trembling with concern. He shook his head. “Dawn…”

“I told you, I took precautions,” Dawn said, holding up her hands. “You’re right, maybe it’s not 100%. But I felt that if we were going to… well, you know, that now would be the safest time to do it. I mean, it’s not like we could trust any of the contraception methods Dakota would provide us anyway, right? We’d ask for, like, Plan B and she’d give me an ovulation inducer instead, like that jar of pills Mary was always carrying around.”

“Oh, yeah, I bet,” Nick said, sighing, shaking his head. Now that Dawn brought it up, he hadn’t seen those pills since Mary had moved into the Master’s Suite. Where had she stashed them away? Maybe he should be more concerned about that, but he couldn’t really do anything about it.

“So I figured that it was worth the risk,” Dawn said, shrugging. “I have confidence in my body. I know that I’m about as far from likely to conceive as possible. So it was a risk worth taking. And besides… you weren’t exactly feeling the urge to pull out.”

Nick blushed. That was true. Unfortunately for him, this was an issue that could cause a lot of problems. If things didn’t work out the way they wanted them to…

“But what if it-”

“Nick, please, let’s not think about this,” Dawn begged, cutting into his worried overthinking. She looked at him with desperation in her eyes. “Let’s just have a nice night together, okay? There’s nothing to panic about.”

She wasn’t sure if they should panic or not. There were issues involved with this. He didn’t want Dawn to have a baby. He had already gotten Mary pregnant; as hot as having sex with Dawn and getting her pregnant would be- and the sex HAD been amazing- this wasn’t a situation that he was sure they were ready for, unlike with Mary.

“Dawn… if… if it does happen, then…”

Dawn sighed and adjusted her glasses. “Listen, Nick, there’s no need to worry, okay?”

“I thought you were supposed to be the rational one?” Nick asked. “I’m trying to do the rational thing here.”

“And I’m trying to have a good night,” she pleaded with him, giving Nick her best moist expression as she batted her eyelashes at him. “Nick… we’ve had a good time so far. Including in the sauna. I did the math, and I know that the chance, well… it’s not a bad one. So let’s not worry about it, okay? Everything’s going to be fine. Like you said- I know a bit more about human anatomy than you do, right?”

“…I guess so,” Nick said, relaxing a bit. “If you’re sure about this, I mean.” He wasn’t fully convinced. But Dawn sounded like she had this all figured out.

Or maybe she was white-knuckling to push through something that had gotten out of her control. He honestly didn’t know at this point.

“I’m sorry I brought it up,” Dawn said gently. “We’ll figure out what to do later, if we need to. For now, though? Chicken Florentine it is!”

Nick cracked a shaky smile. “Okay then,” he agreed, nodding. “Let’s eat. As for me, I’m thinking of getting the Beef Wellington.”

Dawn beamed at him and nodded, glad they were moving past this. They had been having a nice night up until this point- No sense messing things up any further by talking about stuff that was just going to bother them both.

She was too confident in herself.

So the two of them ordered their food, and continued their date.

“You sure about going up like that?” Rose asked, looking reluctantly at Ella as she checked out her appearance in the mirror. That was one good thing about the Fashion Suite- there were plenty of mirrors.

Ella looked ****, and for obvious reason. Her ass was still wide and thick, thanks to Morgana’s spell, and if someone took a bite out of her, they could reverse it- but Ella wasn’t about to let that happen, unfortunately.

It didn’t help either that her face was red and flushed, and her eyes had a glassy, unfocused look to them. Probably due to the heat running through her, and the thoughts that were occupying her mind right now.

“Thwap!”

Ella snapped her rubber-band. Not only did it help stave Cinder off, but it helped her refocus and come back down to earth. She needed to focus right now, she needed to keep her feelings under control, because if she couldn’t handle that…

What would Cinder do, when she took over?

Ella clenched her thighs together and pulled down the hem of her skirt. Unfortunately, her duties in the Master Suite required her to wear this costume, and it was shorter than she would like now, thanks to her expanded assets.

That didn’t go unnoticed by Rose, either.

“I’m serious, Ella,” Rose said gently, getting up off the bed and approaching the flustered latina. “I can use my Method Acting transformation and copy yours. Maybe then, you could… I don’t know, take a break or something?”

It was a difficult question. But even if that was possible, Ella refused. She shook her head.

“I-I can handle it my own,” she said. “You don’t need to come.”

Rose blinked, and looked at the heated expression on the other girl’s face. “Wait… Ella, are you… excited?”

“Eh!?” Ella squeaked, her eyes widening. Rose’s eyes widened in return as she put the pieces together, and a sly smile spread up her slips.

“Oh, my my my…”

“It’s not what you’re thinking!” Ella blurted out, waving her hands frantically. Her eyes spun in her head. “I’m not like that! I don’t think those kinds of thoughts, I swear, I just… look, it’s more complicated than you think, okay?!”

“Uh-huh, sure, if you say so,” Rose replied, shrugging. “Look, Ella, I’m not trying to make a big deal out of this. You’re right, it’s nothing. Just you, affected by a spell that boosts your arousal, wanting to go up to the Master’s Suite alone with a cute guy…”

“Shut up!” Ella screamed, startling Rose. The blonde recoiled, her eyes wide with surprise as she looked at the almost feral expression on Ella’s face. The latina’s eyes were frantic and heated, and she seemed like she was going to tear Rose apart for a moment.

But she managed to get control over herself. She didn’t even need to snap her rubber-band, she just needed to calm down, slow her breathing, and let the negative thoughts running through her disperse as best as they could.

Once they had, remorse took over, and she looked at Rose with tears in her eyes.

“I-I’m sorry,” she stammered, taking a step back and holding up her hands. “I didn’t mean… I just… all that stuff you were saying, I was overwhelmed, and…”

There was no excuse for her outburst. There never was. That hadn’t been Cinder, it had been all her. She’d lost her temper at Rose’s teasing, and lashed out at her.

Ella felt absolutely miserable.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have been teasing you,” Rose apologized. She’d mistaken their interactions today as a sign of a bond forming, but she should have known better than to push the envelope with someone like Ella, not in a situation like this. “I’m just trying to help.”

Ella bit her lip and shook her head. “I’m going to be fine…” She was saying that more to herself than to Rose at this point. “It’s all going to be okay…”

Of course, she knew that those words were hollow leaving her lips. Ella was emotionally unstable on her best day, and she was well aware of that fact. And right now, faced with a situation like this, where Morgana’s spell was heating up her body to such an **** degree, making her feel all of these passionate feelings…

Ella gulped.

“I-I don’t know what to do…” she admitted, squeezing her legs together and tugging down her skirt. “I’ve never faced a situation like this before.”

Rose blinked. “…Never?”

Ella bit her lip and cautiously shook her head.

That was quite a revelation for the blonde. “So you mean you’ve never… down there?”

“Eh!?” Ella squeaked out.

“…Touched yourself, I mean.” Rose seldom had qualms about being blunt, but she was hesitant given Ella’s current state.

Better to rip off the band-aid, though.

Ella’s face burned, and her heart screamed in her chest. Her trembling fingers reached towards her wrist, and she snapped it. “Thwap!”

“I-I have…” she admitted, burning with shame. “But it was always so naughty and… d-dirty. I did it because I had to, but…”

Ella bit her lip and shook her head. She turned away from Rose, feeling like she didn’t want anyone to even look at her face at this point.

Because she was just that ashamed.

“Ella, it’s not naughty or dirty at all,” Rose said bluntly. She approached the other girl, and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. Ella twisted away like Rose’s touch was poison to her. She glanced up at the other woman, her eyes wide with fear.

“It… it’s not?” She squeaked out.

“Of course it’s not,” Rose said. “Your body… well, it’s just natural. Look, while you’re in the Master’s Suite, you should talk to Mary. She’s a wonderful woman, and she’s faced some serious issues with her own views about sexuality. Now, it’s obvious you don’t have a lot of experience. But talking with Mary, it might be able to help you.”

Ella wasn’t sure. But Rose sounded so genuine. Shockingly so.

As for Rose, she felt a little queasy dragging Mary into this. But as much as she hated to admit it, Mary would probably be able to reach Ella better than she could right now.

“…Look, just try not to worry about it, okay?” Rose flashed a smile. “You’re going to be fine. And Nick’s not going to take advantage of you, you know that.”

Ella gulped and nodded. “R-right…”

Rose’s words in Nick’s defense helped her feel better. But the fact that the thought he might made her feel all sorts of uncomfortable… mainly at how the heat and pleasure she was feeling was amplified by her imagination of Nick touching her like that, whether she wanted him to or not.

Something was definitely wrong with her.